Livia Morris has always had a social conscience.

As a young girl, her mom says, Livia never passed a homeless person without saying hello.

“She was never afraid,” Cyllene Morris said. “She would say, ‘Hi,’ and ask me to buy them food.”

So it’s no surprise that when it came time to work on her Girl Scout Silver Award project, Livia, now a ninth-grader at Harper Junior High School, decided to focus on the homeless. But when she visited the Davis Community Meals transitional housing program, even she was surprised to learn just how many families are homeless in Davis.

“I didn’t know homelessness was such a big issue here,” she said. “Some families were living in cars, and I’m sure some are at my school.”

The transitional housing program provides exactly that: temporary housing to families with minor children until they can get back on their feet. Families can stay for up to 18 months and receive services along the way to help ease their transition back to independence.

Many families arrive at the program with little more than the clothes on their backs and whatever else they can carry with them, Morris said. They find shelter, a roof over their heads and beds to sleep in. But missing are many of the comforts of home, including what many children take for granted: books and board games.

So Morris decided to rectify that by providing bookcases full of books and games for each housing unit.

She presented her proposal to the Girl Scout Council and was provided a $75 grant. Then she turned to Craigslist.com. Thanks to her parents, who were willing to drive to Folsom, Woodland and elsewhere, Morris was able to find and purchase more than enough bookcases with that $75. Some needed a little paint, but many were like new.

When Morris put out the word that she was looking for books and board games for all ages, donations came flooding in. Donors included her mom’s co-workers at the California Cancer Registry; teachers at North Davis Elementary School; the Montgomery Elementary School PTA; and Girl Scouts all over Davis.

Morris sorted through the hundreds of books on her living room floor, placing them in piles according to age and gender. She’d been given a list of the families living in the transitional housing program — no names, just ages and genders — and took her time making sure she found just the right books for each person.

Board games proved a little harder to come by, but enough were donated to go around. First 5 Yolo supplied her with parenting packs in both English and Spanish that included books, handouts and information sheets.

Collection sorted and complete, she and her dad loaded everything up and delivered it all to Davis Community Meals.

“I felt good with the amount of books,” Morris said. “But I was concerned the books wouldn’t be right for everyone.”

However, she realized families could swap books, and everything would be left behind when families moved on, so they could be enjoyed by the next residents of the transitional housing program.

“Families may come to this with nothing,” noted her mom, “and having books they can read to their kids can bring some comfort.”

Morris is already looking forward to her Gold Award project, and possibly helping the transitional housing program again. If so, she’ll bring with her the skills she picked up this time around. Chief among them are time management, how to seek out donations and how to publicize her efforts.

She’ll also bring with her the confidence that she can make a difference.

“I wanted to do something where there was a need,” she said. “And these families need help.”

— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at [email protected] and (530) 747-8051.

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